GT86 sets world's longest drift

A German man in a Japanese sportscar has set a new world record in Turkey. And it's quite a record. It is the record for the longest vehicle drift... in the world.

That man is Harald Müller, the car was the Toyota GT86, and the location was Samsun. Harald managed to record a monster 144.126km drift. That's many sideways.

More sideways than Mauro Calo, who way back in 2011 managed to drift for a continuous mile and a half in a Mercedes C63 AMG. Though of course, Mauro's record was a ‘proper' drift, because it was on a dry track. As you'll see from the footage above, Müller's attempt was on a soaking wet course.

Still, on 15 July 2014, Harald drifted the GT86 for a whopping two hours, 25 minutes and 18 seconds, completing 612 laps of the 235.5-metre course in the process. He apparently failed on his first attempt, the successful record coming on just his second attempt. How he didn't manage to get - dare we say it - a little bored after the first half an hour is beyond us.

The GT86's engine was unmodified, and so pumped out the standard 200bhp. But it was more than enough for the Guinness World Record officials and independent witness - King of Europe Drift judge Görkem Cosgun - to verify that he did in fact, drift for a whisker under 145 kilometres. HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE KILOMETRES. SIDEWAYS.

There is some footage below. Mr Müller, TopGear salutes you. But we have to ask: is a wet track cheating?